It is interesting to note that in multiple instances in history, a sudden illness or death of a general played a pivotal role in causing its army to lose a battle.
Compare the following:
(from The Battle of the Marne)
The nervous breakdown of General Moltke at the most critical time. To compound this act of providence that the German army should inexplicably retreat, General Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing of the danger. This caused the retreat to continue instead of Moltke possibly stopping it and continuing the attack. It is very likely that Moltke, who was the superior to Hentsch – in fact, Hentsch was his subordinate – would simply override Hentsch who actually issued the retreat order without him! But his sudden nervous breakdown made him incapable of giving any overriding orders. So with the general out of the way, his subordinates took over and continued following Hentsch’s order to retreat to the Aisne, “to regroup for another offensive”.
(from The Battle of El Alamein)
An uncanny coincidence that completely changed the outcome of the battle was Rommel’s sudden illness. Despite the lack of resources, Rommel’s forces were very well trained and powerful. The British were well aware that Rommel would be unable to mount a defense based on his usual tactics but no clear picture emerged of how he would fight the battle and British plans seriously underestimated the Axis defenses and the fighting power of the Panzerarmee.[34] However, right in middle of the campaign Rommel suddenly became so ill that in early September, arrangements were made for him to return to Germany on sick leave. In another extremely fortuitous coincidence, the replacement General Georg Stum died suddenly, from an unknown cause! He was found dead along the track with no wound that could be seen. He was known to have high blood pressure and it was thought he had died of a heart attack.[7]
